This time, Neumann-Goretti was prepared to stop Wyomissing — and did
PHILADELPHIA — Neumann-Goretti football coach Albie Crosby knew the path to the PIAA Class 3A championship game went through Wyomissing. To reach the end his team had to stop the Spartans’ Wing-T.
The Saints couldn’t a year ago; they gave up 347 rushing yards and lost by six touchdowns in a state quarterfinal.
He and his defensive staff spent the months since trying to figure a way to stop the Spartans.
“We worked on it every day,” he said Saturday after the Saints limited the Spartans to a season-low scoring total in a 20-17 PIAA Class 3A semifinal upset of the state’s top-ranked team at the Germantown Super Site.
The Saints (11-3) took away the Spartans’ big plays, limited their running game — and still needed a miracle ending to advance to the PIAA championship game next Saturday at noon.
They got it when Aaasim Major, left uncovered deep down the left sideline, pulled in a 44-yard touchdown pass with eight seconds left. It was a stunning ending, especially against a veteran defense as good as Wyomissing’s.
“It hurts,” said Wyomissing coach Bob Wolfrum, “because I thought we had lucked out and gotten that last score.”
The Spartans (13-1) needed to take to the air after Ky Bradley’s 3-yard TD run gave Goretti a 14-10 lead with 2:01 left.
Wyomissing, its season on the line, began its final possession at its 20. It went right down the field, with Ben Zechman connecting on passes of 22 and 29 yards to Eisenhower and for 13 yards to Matt Kramer. He capped the 10-play drive by finding Charlie McIntyre open on the left wing for a 10-yard score and 17-14 lead with 34 seconds left.
“I thought we had escaped,” Wolfrum said.
A week ago, at Danville, they did, the Ironmen missing a makeable field goal in the final seconds that allowed the Spartans to advance with a 21-19 victory.
Not this time.
The Lancaster-Lebanon League’s top-ranked defensive unit merely needed to hold off the Saints — who played the final quarter without their best player, Shawn Battle — for a few plays, but couldn’t do it. Goretti took over at its 44 with 27 seconds left and scored in three plays.
“It hurts,” said Wyomissing senior safety Drew Eisenhower. ” We fell the past two years in the state championship but it’s even worse now, not even making it.”
The Saints advance to play Belle Vernon in the championship game. The Spartans, the only Berks team to make it to back-to-back state title games appearances, were denied a third straight trip.
Wyomissing was stopped in large part because of Goretti’s dominant defense and it’s ability to handle a huge front line that hadn’t been outplayed all year. For the first time the Spartans met their match up front.
They were stopped three times on fourth-down tries and were forced to settle for Ian Levering’s 19-yard field goal when they were stopped short on third-and-goal from the 4 late in the first half. Levering’s kick made it 10-0.
“They really hammered us all day long,” Wolfrum said. “They outplayed us. We were just hanging on.”
Crosby said his team was much better prepared this time to defend the Wing-T.
“You’ve just gotta be disciplined,” he said. “A lot of times, people would say our teams are undisciplined, but if you watch that game (our guys) were disciplined. They stayed home. A lot of big runs didn’t happen. A lot of big plays didn’t happen. Even when we were out of position we were still able to be around the ball to make plays.”
Wyomisisng, which averaged 326 rushing yards per game, managed just 140 yards on 43 carries. It was stopped for losses on seven plays and held to 2 or less yards 13 times. Half of its run plays went for almost nothing.
That’s par for the course for the Saints: They had allowed an average of 48 rushing yards per game and 2.01 yards per carry this season.
“We were just on our heels all day, because of them,” the always gracious Wolfrum said. “They were really good. They ‘out-physicaled’ us and we really had nothing we could call our own (on offense). We had a decent drive or two but we never seemed to finish them off.”
Neumann-Goretti answered Levering’s field goal quickly as Battle, a Boston College recruit with big-time moves, found a crease and went 52 yards for a touchdown with 4:26 left in the opening half. Sam Hobbs’ two-point run cut Wyo’s lead to 10-8.
The Spartans went ahead 7-0 with a nine-play, 46 yard drive capped in the final minute of the first quarter by Eisenhower’s 6-yard run. The drive was kept alive when Zechman zipped a pass to Ethan Brower, whose 16-yard gain gave Wyo a first down at the 8.
Battle rushed for 190 yards on 19 carries before being ejected in the final minute of the third quarter for fighting. He spent the afternoon fighting — for extra yards. He did a lot of chirping after his runs and even appeared at one point to challenge Jven Williams, the 300-pound Penn State recruit.
Battle’s big guys made enough of a push up front to give him room to pick his spots and dart through. He ran for 100 yards in the third quarter alone, getting 10 or more yards on each of his four carries.
“They’re a tough team to play,” Wolfrum said, “because they spread the field, especially when they have an athlete or two that’ll make plays on you. That makes it really tough.”
“Their athletes are just top tier,” said two-way Wyomissing lineman Pacen Ziegler. “They could burn us any play. The second we didn’t wrap up they could score.”
The Spartans’ defense has been effective this season rushing the passer — that was a key in slowing down Danville’s attack last week. They never got their hands on Goretti quarterback Mehki Wharton, who had plenty of protection.
They chased him out of the pocket a few times but he continued to make plays, the biggest his 13-yard run to escape a sack on a third-and-6 from the Wyomisisng 44 with 2 1/2 minutes left. That gave Goretti a first down at the 31. Three plays later the Saints scored to go up 14-10 with 2:01 remaining.
Only two other teams — Berks Catholic and Danville — had reached the end zone three times against Wyomissing. The Saints did it twice in the final two minutes.
“We’re not used to teams doing that to us,” Wolfrum said.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Wyomissing | 7 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 17 |
| Neumann-Goretti | 0 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 20 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | Wyomissing | D. Eisenhower, 6 run (Levering kick) | 1:15 |
| 2 | Wyomissing | Levering, 19 FG | 4:56 |
| 2 | Neumann-Goretti | Battle, 52 run (Hobbs runs) | 4:26 |
| 4 | Neumann-Goretti | Bradley, 3 run (pass failed) | 2:01 |
| 4 | Wyomissing | McIntyre, 10 pass from Zechman (Levering kick) | 0:34 |
| 4 | Neumann-Goretti | Major, 44 pass from Wharton (pass failed) | 0:08 |
Team statistics
| Wyomissing | Neumann-Goretti | |
| First downs | 16 | 18 |
| Rushes-yards | 43-140 | 35-265 |
| Passing yards | 117 | 128 |
| Total yards | 257 | 393 |
| Passes | 8-17-0 | 13-20-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 1-1 |
| Punts-average | 3-36.3 | 2-29.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 5-30 | 14-118 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Wyomissing: Kramer 18-72, D. Eisenhower 10-41, McIntyre 11-21, Jones 1-9, C. Eisenhower 1-1, Zechman 2-(-4).
Neumann-Goretti: Battle 19-190, Gowens 10-41, Page 3-16, Wharton 1-13, Bradley 2-5.
PASSING
Wyomissing: Zechman 8-17-0–117.
Neumann-Goretti: Wharton 13-20-0–128.
RECEIVING
Wyomissing: D. Eisenhower 4-64, Kramer 2-27, Brower 1-16, McIntyre 1-10.
Neumann-Goretti: Qaasim 6-70, Smith 5-42, Beverly 1-14, Gowens 1-2.
